I remember back in 1997 when I first heard about cookies and their possible uses on the Internet; I was very excited. At that time the majority of Internet professionals could not have foreseen the impending privacy concerns that cookies would bring to the table.

Let’s take a look at the basic premise behind cookies; then we can talk about current privacy concerns.

HTML, the basic language web pages are written in, has a major draw back in that it is stateless. This means that when a user requests a page from the server, and then requests another page, the server has no way of connecting the two requests to the same user. To the server, your request for two pages could have been made by two different people. This makes the short-term storage of information very hard.

As a practical example, let’s say you visit Bob’s website and are given the choice of colors. You choose blue as your favorite color and the page changes to a blue hue. Next you click on a link and are taken to a new page, but this new page has the old color, not your favorite blue. This is because the server has no way of knowing you are the same person.

To assist with this sort of problem Netscape invented cookies. These tiny text files are saved on your computer when you visit a website. They can save information about your preferences, your username, shopping cart contents and much more.

Now let’s check out Bob’s website. You return to Bob’s site and select your favorite color, blue. The page changes to a blue hue as before, but this time something else happens behind the scenes. Bob’s server saves a little file called “bobscookie.txt” to your computer. Now when you click on a link to Bob’s site the page you get checks to see if you have a cookie. When the website finds the cookie, it reads the color and sets the page hue accordingly.

So where does the privacy issue come into play? Really there are two privacy issues, the first of which is that cookies are created in the background and not seen by the user.

Privacy proponents say that nothing should be stored about you unless you know about it and accept that action. They go on to say that cookies are bad because you have no control. I agree with the first statement; however the second is not exactly true. All Internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Fire Fox, etc.) allow you to set your preferences regarding cookies.

In fact a few years ago I remember the “Cookie Craze” when everyone was disabling all cookies because they had been scared by some uneducated Internet guru. The truth of the matter is, and you know this from reading my articles, cookies are very useful tools and can be used for good. You have the ability and every right to control cookies on your computer. Remember, most are good, so take the time to research which sites you want to block and which types of cookies you don’t like.

This leads us to the second privacy concern; user tracking. Here’s how it works.

Bob decides to join an advertising network; we will use DoubleClick as our example because they are the best known. When Bob adds DoubleClick’s advertising code to his site each of his visitors receives a new cookie from DoubleClick. This new cookie is not evil by itself, but what happens next brings serious privacy questions to the forefront.

Each time a user visits a website with DoubleClick advertising code on it, that user is tracked. DoubleClick has such a large user base that you can easily be tracked on a vast majority of websites.

Here’s a practical example. Let’s say you like tennis and visit many tennis websites. These sites use DoubleClick code and so you are tracked. DoubleClick can tell which sites you have been to and will send you webpage ads related to tennis. This is sort of neat, in that the webpage ads you receive are all geared towards your interests. The problem is you were tracked.

Now DoubleClick and other companies like them will say that you are not personally identifiable. Although this may be true, your computer has still been tracked. Herein lies the debate; how much is too much?

Next week we will continue the Infiltrating the Internet series and review advertising theories for online businesses.